A Grapevine Memoriam
by Barren
Summary: (One-Shot) May reflects on the events of her life and how her path has been swayed by a young man she knew years ago.


A Grapevine Memoriam

It was the darkness of night and it was the light of the day at the very same time. It was a feeling of emptiness and loneliness, but it was also a sense of closeness. It was wrong, but it was right. Thoughts and emotions long since passed were racing through May Maple's young, confused head that night underneath the moon and she didn't quite know how she felt about them. Thoughts of years gone by and tales not told, words not said, and feelings not expressed. Yet at the very center of them was a man she thought she would never think of again, hoping desperately she would be able to push out of her mind.

The man in question here was a young man of average stature, of average build, of general average appearance to the untrained eye. He had an average Pokemon and an average house in an average town by the average name of Pallet and an average childhood. It was his thoughts, his experiences, and his emotions that made him distinct. He was anything but an average boy on the inside; he was a strong, emotionally capable young man who overcame more obstacles than May could ever hope to in a short period of time. It was strange for her to be feeling this way, especially when one is given insight into her current status as a taken woman.

May had been traveling with a young man named Drew, a suave young man who had a good heart and a charming tongue. He was a wealthy young man and provided Miss Maple (as he called her) with whatever she required, be it jewelry or dresses or exquisite dining choices. May, however, was a simple woman, one who never wanted achievement for the spoils that came along with it, especially not when such spoils required nothing but giving an occasional kiss to the green haired young man. It was a strange relationship indeed, but such is the nature of many successful relationships, as this one had been at least to a certain extent.

With such a presumably happy relationship, it leaves one to ponder, as May did, why she felt the way she did. As the night went on and she lay underneath the moonlight the reasons why never fully became clear to her. She began to think of her adventures with Ash when she was a young girl instead of a young adult. She began to think of how he had taught her everything she knew, how he had protected her and defended her even when things seemed hopeless, and how he had always taken her side no matter the issue. She remembered why she was where she was, and she knew it wasn't because of her. She knew it was because of Ash and the drive he had given her to succeed, and she knew she wouldn't have gotten nearly as far as she had without his help. She wouldn't be his equal, she wouldn't be a champion, not without Ash.

She grasped her half of the Terracotta ribbon she kept in her purse and ran her fingers over its silky pink and white fabric and touched its golden center. She felt the heat where it had been cut in half and she remembered her feelings for the young man, and she expressed regret in her mind that she hadn't seen him in so many years. She felt like she had betrayed him to never stand by him as he had stood by her, to never defend him as he had defended her, and to take away his pain as he had taken away hers. She felt a stinging guilt and as she looked over at the man she would lay in bed with that night, she felt a twinge of pain, that perhaps Drew wasn't the right decision, and that perhaps she had the right decision glaring in front of her for the year and a half with which she travelled with Ash, and yet had never said "Yes, he's the one!". She had never felt these feelings before, and she wished that she could see Ash's face once more, to see how he had changed, to see if he still held his same care-free attitude and endearing expressions that she now realized she deeply missed. She wondered if he still held his positive outlook, one that counteracted Drew's sarcastic and cynical outlook to the dot. She wondered if he still had his adventurous spirit, one that matched her own and one that made their adventures together so memorable for her.

Finally, May looked over at the ring on the other end of the room, the ring Drew had offered her in engagement, the diamond ring with which she made a promise to him to never betray him. And yet here she was, already breaking her promise to him before even their wedding day. But in the wrong she was feeling, she seemed to find one right, and that was that she was correct, that the man that lay in the bed near her was not the man that was right for her. She knew the man she desired and she knew she could have one more chance with him. She put her regrets to the back of her mind, to make way for a new one that she was about to make. She took the ring off of the counter and split it down the middle with the sharpest knife she could find in the kitchen drawer. She opened her sleeping former lover's hand and placed one half of the ring inside while she put the other half in her own, and it would be her new Terracotta ribbon. It would remind her of him and why she couldn't come back, and why she couldn't love Drew any longer. She found it hard to hold back her tears as she thought of how Drew might feel, but she knew that he would know. He would not understand, but he would know that she was gone.

May was a wild stallion that could not be tamed, running like the Rapidash through the grasslands of Kanto. She knew that she could never be comfortable with a man like Drew, a quiet, reserved man. She had to be with a man like herself, an adventurous spirit, and she knew who that man was. As she wiped away the tear from her brown eye, she untied her bandanna off of her head and laid it on the counter, where the ring rested, full of naught but unfulfilled promises, only moments ago. She grabbed her backpack full of her Pokemon, she opened the door out of Drew's waterfront Vermillion City home, and she left, to go find the man she knew and the man she hoped to love.


End file.
